Randomized appearance

A major part of NetHack is identifying items. To make this difficult for players, the appearances of potions, rings, amulets, wands, most spellbooks, most scrolls, and some types of armor are randomly shuffled at the start of each game. Some of these possible item appearances can also affect the item's function beyond that of its identified type, and will be detailed for each item type.

This page lists the possible randomized appearances of each item in NetHack: every object that has a randomized appearance will have a "default" starting appearance prior to them being shuffled, all of which can be seen in include/objects.h within the source code. In several cases, there are intentionally more randomized appearances for a given object type than there are possible items of that type.

The discoveries list, which is accessed by pressing the backslash key (\), displays the current randomized appearance of all the items that the hero has formally identified, as well as any class of items that the player has assigned a name to at any point (which are informally referred to as type-names). The player can also type-name objects that are listed on the discoveries menu by using the #name command and pressing d.

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Scrolls

For scrolls, scrolls of mail and blank paper are the only ones to always have fixed appearances ("stamped scroll" and "unlabeled scroll", respectively). All other scrolls may appear with one of the following labels that are shuffled into use at the start of a game:

   ZELGO MER       JUYED AWK YACC   NR 9               XIXAXA XOXAXA XUXAXA
   PRATYAVAYAH     DAIYEN FOOELS    LEP GEX VEN ZEA    PRIRUTSENIE
   ELBIB YLOH      VERR YED HORRE   VENZAR BORGAVVE    THARR
   YUM YUM         KERNOD WEL       ELAM EBOW          DUAM XNAHT
   ANDOVA BEGARIN  KIRJE            VE FORBRYDERNE     HACKEM MUCHE
   VELOX NEB       FOOBIE BLETCH    TEMOV              GARVEN DEH
   READ ME         ETAOIN SHRDLU    LOREM IPSUM        FNORD
   KO BATE         ABRA KA DABRA    ASHPD SODALG       MAPIRO MAHAMA DIROMAT
   GNIK SISI VLE   HAPAX LEGOMENON  EIRIS SAZUN IDISI  PHOL ENDE WODAN
   GHOTI           ZLORFIK          VAS CORP BET MANI  STRC PRST SKRZ KRK
   XOR OTA

For the meanings and origins of some of these names, see the article on scroll origins.

A hero eating a scroll labeled YUM YUM while polymorphed into a gelatinous cube will cause the game to print YAFM.

Potions

For potions, the potion of water, holy water and unholy water will always appear as "clear potions" of the appropriate beatitude. All other potions may have one of the following appearances, which are shuffled into use at the start of a game:

   ruby        pink        orange        yellow          emerald
   dark green  cyan        sky blue      brilliant blue  magenta
   purple-red  puce        milky         swirly          bubbly
   smoky       cloudy      effervescent  black           golden
   brown       fizzy       dark          white           murky

The smoky potion and milky potion are potion appearances that have special effects regardless of their actual identity: a hero or monster that quaffs a smoky potion may release a djinni, which may grant a wish if they appear for the hero, while quaffing a milky potion may release a ghost that frightens the would-be drinker into immobility for three turns (which ignores free action) unless they are blind. The odds of a monster generating in each case depend on the amount of djinn or ghosts that have already been created in the current game, and generating a monster this way replaces the normal effects of the potion.

Spellbooks

For spellbooks, the spellbook of blank paper, the novel and the unique item known as the Book of the Dead all have a fixed appearance ("plain spellbook", "paperback spellbook" and "papryus spellbook", respectively). The covers of all other regular spellbooks will appear as one of the following:

   parchment    vellum       ragged       dog eared    mottled      stained
   cloth        leathery     white        pink         red          orange
   yellow       velvet       light green  dark green   turquoise    cyan
   light blue   dark blue    indigo       magenta      purple       violet
   tan          plaid        light brown  dark brown   gray         wrinkled
   dusty        bronze       copper       silver       gold         glittering
   shining      dull         thin         thick        checkered

Three spellbook appearances have special effects tied to them:

• A "dull spellbook" has a chance of causing a hero that reads the spellbook while they are not confused to fall asleep unless they have sleep resistance, with that chance being dependent on a check against their wisdom. A hero that succeeds in staying awake, but is interrupted in the occupation of successfully reading a dull spellbook, must roll again in order to avoid falling asleep if they resume and will gain an effective bonus to wisdom for that attempt based on the spellbook's level.
• The "vellum spellbook" and "parchment spellbook" are made of leather (specifically animal skin), rather than paper as all the others are, and will break vegetarian conduct if eaten by a hero in the form of a gelatinous cube. This also influences golem creation when polypiling. Despite its name, the "leathery spellbook" is not made of leather, with the description instead referring to the appearance of its cover.

The source code also contains appearances for the deferred spellbooks of flame sphere and freeze sphere, which are "canvas spellbooks" and "hardcover spellbooks" (respectively) and will go unused in normal gameplay if their spellbooks are not enabled.

Rings

Rings will randomly take one of the following appearances:

   pearl       iron        twisted     steel       wire
   engagement  shiny       bronze      brass       copper
   silver      gold        wooden      granite     opal
   clay        coral       black onyx  moonstone   tiger eye
   jade        agate       topaz       sapphire    ruby
   diamond     ivory       emerald

Each ring's randomized appearance determines their material as well as their additional effects in a given game, and also has an associated Mohs scale value, which determines the type of engraving that the ring can be used to make on the floor—see the appropriate section in the ring article for more information on each ring's hardness. The appearance of rings determines what monsters can eat them and thus what polymorph forms the hero can use to do the same, and also influences golem creation when polypiling.

• The "wooden ring" is naturally made of wood, and can be eaten by a gelatinous cube or a hero polymorphed into one.
• The "granite ring", "opal ring", "clay ring", "coral ring", "black onyx ring", and "moonstone ring" are all made of mineral, and the stone to flesh spell will turn these rings into meat rings.
• The "bronze ring", "brass ring" and "copper ring" are all made of copper.
• The "pearl ring" and "ivory ring" are made of bone.
• The "tiger eye ring", "jade ring", "agate ring", "topaz ring", "sapphire ring", "ruby ring", "diamond ring", and "emerald ring" are all made of gemstone.
• The "iron ring", "twisted ring", "steel ring", "wire ring", "engagement ring", and "shiny ring" are all made of iron, which makes them both rust-prone and edible for metallivores—rock moles, xorns, rust monsters, and any hero polymorphed into one of those three monsters.
• The "silver ring" is naturally made of silver, and a hero that attacks with their hands (e.g. bare hands, martial arts, monster-form claw attacks) while wearing a silver ring without gloves will deal extra silver damage to silver-hating monsters. Heroes that have lycanthropy or are in the form of a silver-hating monster cannot put on silver rings.
• The "gold ring" is naturally made of gold.
• The following groups of ring appearances also share a common trait:
  • The "topaz ring", "sapphire ring", "ruby ring", "steel ring", "diamond ring", "emerald ring" can each be used to semi-permanently engrave something on the floor.
  • The "bronze ring", "brass ring", "copper ring", "silver ring", and "gold ring" can be eaten by any metallivore that is not restricted to rustable metals, which consists of the rock mole and xorn (and any hero polymorphed into either monster).

Remember that a ring of slow digestion cannot be eaten by any monster or hero, even if it has a randomized appearance that is normally edible for them.

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Amulets

The Amulet of Yendor and its cheap plastic imitation both appear as "the Amulet of Yendor" when unidentified—the real Amulet is made of mithril, while the fake Amulet is naturally made of plastic. All other amulets are made of iron (making them both rust-prone and edible for metallivores), and will randomly take one of the following appearances:

   circular    spherical   oval
   triangular  pyramidal   square
   concave     hexagonal   octagonal
   perforated  cubical

None of the randomized appearances for amulets have any other effects.

Wands

All wands will randomly take one of the following appearances:

   aluminum    balsa       brass       copper      crystal
   curved      ebony       forked      glass       hexagonal
   iridium     iron        jeweled     long        maple
   marble      oak         pine        platinum    runed
   short       silver      spiked      steel       tin
   uranium     zinc        redwood

Each wand's randomized appearance determines their material as well as their additional effects in a given game, and also influences golem creation when polypiling. While the appearance of a wand also determines what monsters can eat them (and thus what polymorph forms the hero can use to do the same), eating a wand has no effect for the hero besides granting a small amount of nutrition.

• The "glass wand" and "crystal wand" are both made of fragile glass that can break—this is significant in cases such as the wand of wishing within the chest in one of the turrets of the Castle, where kicking to open the chest can shatter it.
• The "balsa wand", "maple wand", "pine wand", "redwood wand", "oak wand", "ebony wand", and "forked wand" are all made of wood.
• The "marble wand" is made of mineral, and the stone to flesh spell will turn marble wands into meat sticks.
• The "tin wand", "iridium wand", "zinc wand", "aluminum wand", and "uranium wand" are all made of metal.
• The "brass wand" and "copper wand" are naturally made of copper.
• The "silver wand" is naturally made of silver and deal bonus damage to silver-hating monsters if wielded while attacking in melee.
• The "platinum wand" is naturally made of platinum.
• The "iron wand", "steel wand", "hexagonal wand", "short wand", "runed wand", "long wand", "curved wand", "spiked wand", and "jeweled wand" are all made of iron, which makes them both rust-prone and edible for metallivores.

The "balsa wand", "glass wand" and "crystal wand" have a minimum of 5 strength required in order to apply and break them, where all other wands require at least 10 strength.

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Armor

Various types of armor that the hero encounters can have varied appearances. Unlike the other object types listed above, this does not apply to all types of armor or even an overwhelming majority of them, and the material of a piece of armor is not determined by its appearance—this means that, regardless of appearance, gauntlets of power and kicking boots will always be made of iron, though their glyph color will always match their randomized appearance.

Four sub-classes of armor have items with randomized appearances among them: helms, cloaks, gloves and boots.

Helms

The helmet, helm of caution, helm of opposite alignment, and helm of telepathy each have one of the following randomized appearances:

   plumed helmet      etched helmet      crested helmet      visored helmet

The helm of brilliance will always have the appearance of a crystal helmet.

The "visored helmet" protects against the blinding claw attack of ravens and the blinding venom-spitting attack of cobras while worn, in addition to its other effects.

Cloaks

The cloak of displacement, cloak of invisibility, cloak of magic resistance, and cloak of protection each have one of the following randomized appearances:

   tattered cape      ornamental cope      opera cloak      piece of cloth

Of note is that all cloak types other than the cloak of magic resistance can be auto-identified under certain circumstances.

Gloves

All four types of gloves–leather gloves, gauntlets of fumbling, gauntlets of power, and gauntlets of dexterity–each have one of the following randomized appearances, which can affect their glyph color but not their material:

   old gloves      padded gloves      riding gloves      fencing gloves

The gauntlets of power will always be made of iron, while all other gloves are made of leather.

A worn pair of riding gloves will increase the chance of successfully applying a saddle to a steed by 10 in addition to its other effects, unless they are the randomized appearance for gauntlets of fumbling.

Boots

The seven types of magical boots each have one of the following randomized appearances, which can affect their glyph color but not their material:

   mud boots      snow boots      riding boots    buckled boots
   hiking boots   combat boots    jungle boots

Kicking boots will always be made of iron, while all other boots are made of leather.

A worn pair of "snow boots" prevents the hero from fumbling while walking across ice in addition to its other effects (meaning that snow boots will not prevent their own fumbling effects if they are fumble boots).

A worn pair of "riding boots" will increase the chance of successfully applying a saddle to a steed by 10 in addition to its other effects, unless they are the randomized appearance for fumble boots, and this bonus is non-cumulative with the bonus given by worn riding gloves.

History

In Hack 1.0, the following randomized appearances are present for each item type:

• Potions: orange, bubbly, glowing, smoky, pink, puce, purple, yellow, white, swirly, purple-red, ruby, dark green, emerald, sky blue, brown, brilliant blue, clear, magenta, ebony
• Scrolls: JUYED AWK YACC, NR 9, XIXAXA XOXAXA XUXAXA, READ ME, PRATYAVAYAH, DAIYEN FOOELS, HACKEM MUCHE, LEP GEX VEN ZEA, PRIRUTSENIE, ELBIB YLOH, VERR YED HORRE, VENZAR BORGAVVE, THARR, YUM YUM, KERNOD WEL, ELAM EBOW, DUAM XNAHT, ANDOVA BEGARIN, VE FORBRYDERNE, VELOX NEB, FOOBIE BLETCH, TEMOV, GARVEN DEH
• Wands: iridium, tin, platinum, glass, zinc, balsa, copper, silver, brass, maple, pine, marble, iron, aluminium (sic), steel, curved, short, long, oak, ebony, runed
• Rings: wooden, black onyx, topaz, pearl, sapphire, moonstone, agate, tiger eye, shining, gold, copper, diamond, jade, ruby, silver, granite, wire, iron, ivory, blackened

NetHack 1.3d introduces spellbooks and retains the list of randomized appearances from Hack 1.0, with the additions listed as follows:

• Potions: cyan
• Scrolls: KIRJE
• Spellbooks: parchment, shining, glowing, mottled, ragged, yellow, light green, dark blue, copper, white, red, dark brown, light brown, pink, light blue, black, rusty, dark green, magenta, silver, indigo, plaid, orange, bronze, cloth, grey, purple, violet, turquoise, cyan, tan, paper, leather, gold, dog eared, thick, thin, stained

From NetHack 1.3d to NetHack 2.3e, the "clear potion" is not a fixed appearance for the potion of holy water, and the scroll of blank paper also does not have a fixed appearance, meaning that both can occur as the appearance of any potion or scroll.

NetHack 2.3e adopts the American spelling for the aluminum wand, and adds "hematite" and "brass" to the randomized appearances for rings.

NetHack 3.0.0 introduces the amulet object class and all amulets other than the Amulet of Yendor and its cheap imitation, as well as expanding upon the types of armor that can be worn in each slot—this includes a majority of the appearances used for randomized armor that are retained all the way to current versions of NetHack. Potions of unholy water and regular water are introduced, and alongside holy water they are given their current fixed appearance of "clear potions". This version also adds the following randomized appearances for objects:

• Amulets: circular, spherical, oval, triangular, pyramidal, square, concave, hexagonal
• Wands: hexagonal, forked, spiked, jeweled
• Spellbooks: glittering, dull
• Rings: diamond
• Helms: rusty pot, plumed hat, crested helmet, visored helmet
• Cloaks: tattered cape, opera hood, faded pall, piece of cloth
• Gloves: old gloves, padded gloves, riding gloves, fencing gloves
• Boots: mud boots, snow boots, riding boots, hiking boots, combat boots, jungle boots

NetHack 3.1.0 establishes some of the remaining randomized appearances that are retained in later versions of NetHack, including the fixed appearances for the spellbook of blank paper ("plain spellbook"), the Book of the Dead ("papyrus spellbook"), and the scrolls of mail and blank paper. It also adds more randomized object appearances and changes some others, including the removal of some appearances from previous games:

• Amulets: octagonal
• Rings: coral, emerald
• Helms: etched helmet
• Removed: "rusty pot", "black spellbook", "rusty spellbook", "glowing spellbook", "hematite ring", "blackened ring"
  • The dented pot is added as a separate non-randomized helm of its own.
  • The appearance associated with the spellbook of remove curse is changed from "black spellbook" to "white spellbook"; this may have been done in error, as "white spellbook" is already associated with the spellbook of healing, but would not be corrected until later versions.
• Changed: "shining ring" -> "shiny ring"; "opera hood" -> "opera cloak"
  • The "faded pall" appearance is given to the elven cloak as a fixed appearance, with the cloak's previous "ornamental cope" appearance replacing it among the randomized cloaks.

NetHack 3.2.0 fixes the duplicated spellbook appearance for the spellbook of remove curse from the NetHack 3.1 series, and also adds two other randomized object appearances:

• Potions: murky
• Spellbooks: wrinkled

NetHack 3.3.0 adds still more randomized object appearances, and all of them are retained up to NetHack 3.4.3:

• Amulets: concave
• Potions: effervescent, black, golden, white
• Spellbooks: velvet, canvas (deferred), hardcover (deferred)
• Wands: crystal
• Rings: opal, twisted, steel
• Boots: buckled

NetHack 3.6.0 changes the "leather spellbook" appearance to "leathery spellbook", and introduces the possible chance of the hero falling asleep when attempting to read a dull spellbook via commit ef3f7585—in this version, the effect ignores sleep resistance, which is bug C360-15 and is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit c843f568. It also adds several scroll labels:

   ETAOIN SHRDLU    LOREM IPSUM        FNORD                    KO BATE
   ABRA KA DABRA    ASHPD SODALG       MAPIRO MAHAMA DIROMAT    GNIK SISI VLE
   HAPAX LEGOMENON  EIRIS SAZUN IDISI  PHOL ENDE WODAN          GHOTI
   ZLORFIK          VAS CORP BET MANI  STRC PRST SKRZ KRK       XOR OTA

NetHack 3.6.1 introduces the message for eating a scroll labeled YUM YUM via commit 1cad5efe.

NetHack 3.6.2 introduces the change to the material of vellum and parchment spellbooks from paper via commit 95b92051.

NetHack 5.0.0 gives the helm of brilliance its fixed appearance of a "crystal helm" and adds the helm of caution, which uses the helm of brilliance's former randomized appearance. It also adds the following object appearances:

• Amulets: perforated, cubical
• Spellbooks: checkered
• Wands: redwood

Variants

NetHack variants that add new items will often add new randomized appearances, and some may add new item effects that are tied to specific randomized appearances.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, vampires are often generated with opera cloaks—this means that type of randomized cloak will be far more common than normal, and can potentially be farmed from said vampires at the risk of them being harder to defeat (e.g. if the opera cloak is a cloak of magic resistance).

dNetHack

dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack have many new item appearances and appearance effects.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, several new item appearances and some appearance effects are added, and materials associated with certain item appearances are changed.

External links

• Relevant spoilers for NetHack 3.4.3 and older versions by Dylan O'Donnell, with some originally created by Kevin Hugo:
  • Armour, its erosion and enchantment, and magic cancellation
  • Potions and their direct effects
  • Potions, alchemy, and other miscellaneous properties
  • Rings and their generic properties
  • Spells (learning, practising, and casting)
  • Wands and their effects